Revelation Last Days Living The Blessed Hope! Revelation 4:1-2 Message #9 of 26 S737 Sermon given on April 30, 2017 Sunday Morning Service Pastor Rick Lancaster
The Blessed Hope! Revelation 4:1-2 Opening Comments Turn to Titus 2 We continue our series: Last Days Living Living in the light of Christ s soon coming! Today, our topic is one of the most widely debated, and often, hotly contentious topics in the Bible Outside the church it is mocked, and inside the church many do not believe it And those who believe it have a wide variety of opinions about it I am certain that there may be people here or who will listen or watch online who will disagree with some of the things I will share today Study it for yourselves and know what you believe If you disagree, send me a message and let s talk about it I have studied this quite a bit, but I do not know everything The Apostle Paul wrote to Titus Titus 2:11-15 The book of Revelation is about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ And Paul says to Titus that we should be looking for the blessed hope of His Coming The blessed hope is the Rapture of the Church In this message, I will attempt to answer three basic questions about the Rapture First What is the Rapture? Second When will the Rapture take place? Third How should we live as we wait for the Rapture? My prayer is that be the end of this message you will understand why Paul called the Rapture the blessed hope of Christians Let s pray now and then get into our text for today Pray Teaching The Blessed Hope! 1
Turn to 1 Thessalonians 4 First What is the Rapture? This is the primary text used any time we teach about the topic of the Rapture Paul is writing to a young church He had told them Jesus was coming again to get the church Then other people were coming in and saying that Jesus had already come back And some of their loved ones had passed away, and they were wondering what that meant for them - confused 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 fallen asleep and sleep in Jesus = idiom, or figure of speech = believers who have died physically 1 Thessalonians 4:15 Paul quotes his source as none other than Jesus Christ Himself Galatians 1:11-12 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Saying, your loved ones haven t missed anything 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 We just celebrated Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ Paul is describing our Easter, it is our resurrection to glorified bodies that never die Paul says elsewhere incorruptible bodies Those who have died, having put their faith in Christ, will be raised first, then those who are living are caught up This is where we get the word Rapture caught up = Greek harpadzo = Latin rapturo Literally means to snatch away The Rapture is when Jesus comes in the air and catches up or snatches all those who have put their trust in Him out of this world to be with Him forever, including all who died trusting in Him Paul ends by saying that is a good thing 1 Thessalonians 4:18 It should bring believers comfort to know those who have passed from this life will meet us in the air when Jesus comes back for us 2
But that comfort is not just about being reunited with our loved ones It is also a comfort to us who live on in this world will explain why in a few minutes The second question When will the Rapture happen? Turn to Revelation 4 This is where interpretations begin to diverge within the church There are some that don t believe that it will happen at all they are not to be considered as serious - 1 Thessalonians 4 is enough to convince honest Bible students that it is going to happen The same is true for those who say it happened in the past - preterism Most serious Bible students will speak of the Rapture in relation to the seven-year period known as The Tribulation The Bible is clear that before Jesus sets up His kingdom on the earth, that a time of God s wrath will fall upon the earth This will be a time of unparalleled devastation upon mankind and upon the earth Matthew 24:21-22 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect s sake those days will be shortened. This devastation will be so great that it is likely that 2/3 to ¾ of the world population will not survive to the end of those seven years, probably between 4 and 5 billion people will die in their sins How could Paul s words bring comfort amid that daily, unrelenting horror? It is my humble opinion that the Bible teaches that the Rapture will take place prior to that seven-year time of God s judgment upon the earth And I believe we see a picture of that here in Revelation 4 Revelation 4:1 One of my foundational beliefs is that the Bible is to be interpreted literally, except where it is obviously symbolic There is a phrase at the beginning and end of verse 1 that is very significant In the Greek it is, meta tauta occurs ten times in Revelation First time was when John was told to write the book Revelation 1:19 3
Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. So when John says After these things = after the things in chapters 1 to 3 Chapters 2 and 3 describe the church age from the time Jesus died on the cross to the time He comes to receive His bride to Himself Revelation 4:1 represents a transition in the events Remember, Revelation is about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ The Second Coming is not a singular event, it is a series of events Just as His first coming was a series of events; birth, life, miracles, teachings, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension The very first event of the Second Coming is when Jesus comes in the air and calls to His people Come up here I believe we see the Rapture pictured in this call to come up here Especially when you compare it with the next verse Revelation 4:2 Immediately instantly, no time intervening Was instantly transported from the Isle of Patmos into the throne room of God Paul tells us that is what the Rapture will be like 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. The Rapture will be an instantaneous event I was in the Spirit His body didn t go to heaven = transformation of this body to glorified body As a church, we believe that everything from chapter four on describes events that are yet future Like to share four reasons why we believe in a Rapture before the Tribulation period begins Pre-Trib Rapture First Blessed Hope Paul told Titus Titus 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ It is inconceivable that anyone could be happy about experiencing any part of the Tribulation 4
Hope is the expectation of coming good, and while the Rapture is a promise of coming good, it is not a blessed hope if it includes suffering with wicked humanity for their sin Second reason Imminent Return of Christ Revelation 22:6-7 Then he said to me, These words are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. All through the New Testament we are told Christ s return will be sudden and unexpected As we study through Revelation, we will see that events follow a clear chronology Tribulation is 7 years long an event happens at the midway point Any other view of the Rapture besides a Pre-Trib viewpoint destroys the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ Third reason Christians are not destined for wrath 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Paul said also that Jesus delivers us from, or out of, the wrath to come He also said in Ephesians that wrath is reserved for the sons of disobedience = non-christians Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2 Fourth reason Man of Sin revealed after the Rapture One of the dominant characters of the Tribulation period is the Man of Sin, aka the Antichrist 2 Thessalonians 2:1 our gathering together to Him = the Rapture 2 Thessalonians 2:2 Someone was telling the Thessalonians, possibly using Paul s name that the Second Coming had already happened They were experiencing persecution, and were being told it was the Tribulation But Paul says something else had to happen first 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 5
The Antichrist must be revealed before God starts to pour out His wrath upon this world But right now, something is in the way 2 Thessalonians 2:5-8 The restrainer is the Holy Spirit For the Antichrist to come onto the scene the Holy Spirit must be taken out of the way That can t happen if the church is in the world For the Holy Spirit to be taken out of the way the church must be removed from the earth the Rapture The context of that whole section is the timing of the Rapture Look back at verse three see the phrase the falling away is the Greek word from which we get the word apostasy which has come to mean rebellion from the faith of God That s not what it meant originally a more accurate translation is the departing Verse three is telling us that the Rapture must come first, and then the revealing of the Antichrist Therefore, we are not looking for the Antichrist looking for Christ We will study later that the Antichrist is revealed by the signing of a peace treaty with Israel Our last point - How should we live as we wait for the Rapture? The Rapture is the catching away of all Christians, living and dead to be with Jesus And it could happen at any moment, it is imminent How then should we live? 1 John 3:1-3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. If you have the blessed hope of the Rapture, which all true Christians should, your response is to purify yourself It is God through the Holy Spirit that purifies us, which means we are becoming like Jesus But we are called to be willing participants in the process 6
It is about connecting ourselves to God through the Holy Spirit and responding to His leading We do that through spiritual disciplines, like prayer, Bible reading, serving, and the like The Rapture is the blessed hope of all believers The better you understand it, the greater the blessing it is, and the more hopeful your life will become, even during the tribulations that will come into this life Next time, we will look with John into the throne room of God Let s pray! - Books Popular Handbook on the Rapture The Rapture Chuck Missler 7